KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

by Kavitha M. Chinnaiyan, MD

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Last month, the American Heart Association, along with numerous other societies, released the updated guidelines for diagnosing and treating high blood pressure (hypertension). Examining the evidence from many studies, the guideline committee found that the harmful effects of hypertension begin at much lower levels than what we had previously thought.

Previously, only blood pressure values of greater than 140/90 mmHg were called hypertension. The new guidelines suggest that blood pressure values greater than 130/80 mmHg are too high, and that we diagnose them as such.

With this shift in how we define high blood pressure, nearly half of all adults in the US are going to be hypertensive, particularly among individuals under forty-five years of age. Three times as many men and twice as many women will now fall under the "hypertensive" category. By no means do the guidelines suggest that we start treating everyone with medications. In fact, lifestyle changes are strongly recommended as the first step in all individuals with hypertension.

For me, as an integrative cardiologist, the question is this—why are so many young people walking around with high blood pressure? To cue into this, we need to look at the various ways in which our blood pressure becomes a problem; only then can we start to put in place the various ways to address it.

What is Blood Pressure?
The heart pumps blood out into the big arteries, which carry it to the rest of the body. Blood flowing in the arteries of the body exerts a pressure on the artery walls. This is known as blood pressure, and it has two components—systolic and diastolic. Systolic blood pressure is the amount of pressure exerted on the arteries while the heart is actively pumping blood into them. Diastolic blood pressure is the amount of pressure on the artery walls in between heart beats.

Blood pressure varies throughout the day, based on exercise, eating, emotional reactions, stress, sleeping, and other factors. It is highest in the early morning and lowest at night, and is highly responsive to everything going on in our bodies, minds, and lives.

What Causes High Blood Pressure?
"Essential" or "idiopathic" hypertension is the most common form of the disease, accounting for 95% of all cases where we can't pinpoint to one factor as being the cause for it. This form of hypertension is usually the result of a whole host of factors, including age, race, gender, smoking, stress, excessive body weight, excessive alcohol intake, poor eating habits, and a lack of physical activity.

"Secondary" hypertension afflicts the remaining 5% of individuals, where high blood pressure is a direct result of some other problem. Thyroid or adrenal gland disorders, artery and kidney disorders, sleep disorders (particularly sleep apnea), and certain tumors that release blood pressure-altering chemicals are the most common ones.

Stress and Hypertension
When we are stressed, our bodies produce a host of hormones to cope with the physiological processes that are stimulated to deal with the situation. The adrenal glands produce adrenaline and cortisol, which increase heart rate and constrict blood vessels to increase blood flow to the muscles of the legs and arms and decrease it in the digestive system. Digestion slows down and senses become more heightened. These acute processes make up what we call the "fight or flight" response. When the stress stimulus subsides, the hormones dissipate and we return to normal.

The stress response is a very useful one, and is a brilliant adaptation of our bodies to deal with imminent threats. However, this response doesn't differentiate between a real threat and an imagined one. Whether we are facing a real physical threat (such as a potential car crash) or a mental one (like what we should say or should have said to the coworker we dislike), the stress response takes over.

While a normal stress response is one that peaks and comes down in a few hours, an abnormal one is sustained over days (and sometimes, for weeks). If we tend to simmer over things, it is likely that we have the latter kind of abnormal stress responses. If we are the kind that can't relax because we are constantly worried about how are perceived or how everyone around us must behave, stress becomes our chronic companion.

While research is still underway to determine the link between stress and hypertension, there is a strong suggestion that chronic stress damages our arteries, triggers an ongoing inflammatory response, and leads to heart disease and other chronic illnesses. As we might expect, constant stress interferes with healing, delaying recovery after a heart attack, procedures, or surgeries, and significantly impairs our quality of life quite.

If we look at our modern lives, it should come as no surprise that chronic stress is a huge factor for many. When we live in a world where the rat race is the norm, we come to accept the constant rushing, jarring interactions with others, lack of quiet time, eating on the go, and being on the edge as normal phenomena. This is especially true if everybody around us is living a hectic, stressful life. It is no wonder then that hypertension will be diagnosed more frequently in young individuals.

In fact, this revelation speaks volumes about what we have come to value. The new guidelines should come as a wake-up call for us as a society, because they point to the non-serving ways in which we live, sacrificing what is good in favor of instant gratification or the tremendous pressure to "get somewhere."

A wake-up call is one that gives us an opportunity to cultivate the intention to change these non-serving patterns and to cultivate new ones that foster our journey toward health and happiness. And what this takes is a deep and loving commitment to ourselves, where we become willing to do whatever it takes to regain our sense of wellbeing while opening to joy, sweetness, and harmonious relationships with others.

In my book, The Heart of Wellness, I describe the nuances of the mind-body relationship as we know it, not only from the standpoint of modern medicine but also from the deeply holistic perspectives of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Vedanta. What is our purpose as human beings treading this unique planet for the very limited time we have here? What is the cause of our suffering, whether or not it is related to disease? Can we find joy and inner bliss even when afflicted with incurable disease? These are some of the themes discussed in the book, along with a detailed Bliss Prescription to regain our understanding of our inherent blissful nature.

Whether it is hypertension or any other chronic illness caused by an imbalanced lifestyle, some of the fundamental remedies remain the same. And they have to do with a total reset of our lives, as outlined below.

1. Maintain a regular schedule. By eating and sleeping at the same time every day, we bring our neuro-hormonal pathways into a state of balance. Working with our naturally occurring circadian rhythms ensures that our metabolism and regenerative functions are working optimally. Go to bed by 10 PM, wake up by 6 AM. Don't skip meals.
2. Bring digestion to balance. One of the key elements of a holistic lifestyle is to bring the digestive system back into balance. Each of us has different digestive issues based on our unique body-mind properties and previously ingrained habits. One size doesn't fit all. Take the Blissful Gut Quiz on my website to receive a personalized plan to balance your digestion.
3. Meditate. Meditation has a very powerful effect on our neuro-hormonal pathways and the stress response. Many studies have demonstrated the potent effect of meditation on lowering blood pressure, the inflammatory response, and the risk of chronic illness. It has also demonstrated a potent anti-aging effect by working on our genetic material. You can enroll in my free Bliss Meditation Course, with ongoing support to maintain the practice.

While there are other lifestyle changes that can further our journey into wellness and bliss, the above steps are the most important. Making these three changes forces us to slow down and prioritize our health and wellness, bringing mindfulness into our daily activities and clearing our perspective about ourselves and the world. Our emotional resilience begins to strengthen while our bodies become radiant and supple.

Now, more than ever, it is important for us to turn our lives around since the old patterns are clearly not working to promote health in our society. It is critically important that we change ourselves so that our children can model their behavior after ours to find different ways to deal with the stressors that will come their way.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2018. All rights reserved.

I keep having a dream about my boyfriend cheating on me with the girl he left me for. (He later came back, saying he had made a mistake.) While I took him back, I can't stop thinking about it. Every night I dream of catching him cheating with her and I don't know what to do about it. It makes me feel incredibly angry with him when I wake up from one of those dreams; it puts me in a bad mood from the moment I open my eyes. What should I do?

Jade

Susyn:

Your dreams are evidence that you still carry deep-seated fears and mistrust as a result of your boyfriendís betrayal. Though you have processed this event intellectually, it's still holding you hostage spiritually and emotionally.

Once you have healed on all levels, these dreams will subside, so let's explore what you can do to work through this and move on.

It can be very difficult to get past the hurt and pain when a loved one breaks your trust in such a shocking way. Although I don't sense that your boyfriend is actually cheating on you again with this woman, your dreams are still processing your fear that he might. They also reflect the mistrust that you naturally still feel toward him.

The first thing to do is figure out why he cheated to begin with. There are many reasons people cheat on their partners: immaturity, ego, weak morals and - most commonly - trouble in their primary relationship. If any of these ring true in your situation, you will know where change may be needed in order to align with a better future.

I suspect that you and your boyfriend have not discussed what happened in depth. It sounds like he asked your forgiveness and you took him back, end of story. Perhaps you don't feel comfortable discussing the details with him. Naturally, it would work against the relationship to begin to question him about where he is, who he's talking to on the phone, etc. However, until you can process your feelings of betrayal and feel more confident that he won't cheat again, the disturbing dreams you are having will continue.

The first thing I recommend is that you seek personal counseling for help with processing all of this. You don't have to involve your boyfriend in this process, as the work you need to do now will be just for yourself. Talking with an objective third party will enable you to express your feelings and ongoing fears about the situation. This will begin the healing process on an emotional and spiritual level.

Though you weren't the cause of your boyfriendís cheating, this kind of experience could radically affect your confidence and self-esteem. In addition to making you doubt your boyfriend, you could be doubting yourself in all sorts of ways now. As you work to restore your sense of inner peace with a therapist, your trust in yourself will return. When it does, youíll become more aware of what is going on around you and how your relationship is really doing, which will enable you to create the kind of experience you desire and enjoy dreams of a more positive nature.

*****

Oceania:

Radio counselor Laura Schlessinger would ask: Is it a pattern or an incident? Long-term repetitive patterns are more worrisome than single episodes of poor judgment. She speaks of The Four R's that must be addressed in order for a mistake to be forgivable: taking responsibility, expressing remorse, repairing the damage, and taking steps to avoid repetition. To determine if your man has earned your forgiveness, I encourage you to ask yourself if he has met these criteria.

You say you can't stop thinking about the affair, which indicates that it has become an obessession. Often we obsess on simple outer problems in order to avoid facing more complex emotional matters. Since affairs are symptomatic of underlying relationship problems, I encourage you to look at how you and your boyfriend may no longer be a good match.

If you discover underlying conflicts, you'll want to explore together whether they're fixable or whether itís time to part ways. A trial separation might be helpful, though sometimes simply airing things out verbally or in writing makes all the difference. If you want to make things work, I encourage you to remember that he did choose you by ending the affair.

Is it possible youíre dwelling on his betrayal because you have been thinking of leaving? Your dreams about him cheating are fantasies that would give you justification to leave; you donít need to catch him doing wrong to justify leaving him. It may be easier to think of him as the betrayer than it is to see yourself in that role. Do give yourself permission to examine whether this relationship is still good for you regardless of how he feels, for staying in a relationship that no longer fits can mean long-term chronic pain.

Occasionally, an affair does NOT point to a pre-existing problem but is indicative of poor character. If thatís the case, it means your boyfriend is not relationship material and you're better off without him.

Eventually, we DO heal from emotional wounds, just as we heal from physical ones. We must be willing to sob, wail and hurt in the short run in order to heal and prepare for a healthier, happier future.

Let's face it: dreams or no dreams, you are angry! You may fear your anger because you equate it with painful past experiences, but anger is simply energy that tells you something is wrong or hurting you. Use the gift of anger to take positive action, to set healthy boundaries, or to muster up the courage and conviction to release this relationship in favor of something better.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.